


paradox

by average_lasagna



Series: the extended death of laura vanderboom [1]
Category: Cube Escape: Paradox (Video Game), Rusty Lake | Cube Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Corrupted Soul Dale, Out of Character, Temporal Paradox, Time Loop, honest to god can you imagine them being this open? the world would end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:06:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24991261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/average_lasagna/pseuds/average_lasagna
Summary: He could tell Laura was rolling her eyes as she tipped her head back, resting it on his shoulder, baring her neck further. "I'm getting bored, Dale. Kill me. You know this is how it has to be.""Is it?""'One of us will die," she said, "and the other will be enlightened.' Welcome to the enlightenment of Dale Vandermeer. Now, kill me."Another version of him was on the shore, agony and confusion on his face. Fucking paradoxes.
Relationships: Laura Vanderboom & Dale Vandermeer, Laura Vanderboom/Dale Vandermeer
Series: the extended death of laura vanderboom [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1806181
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	paradox

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by the achievement that shows a human Dale killing Laura.
> 
> this is kind of out of character? i can't imagine them ever being this open in the game.

This wasn't supposed to happen. They'd played through this before, hadn't they? It had never been like this. He remembered feeling the sand beneath his shoes, smelling the lakewater. Screaming and feeling sick to his stomach as he watched the shadowy figure hold her. Diving in after her body and finding nothing but a cube. Not getting to save her. Waking up with a throbbing head and doing it again.

What was it Owl had said? One of you will die; the other will be enlightened. Was this his enlightenment? Feeling his heart hammer away as Laura's back pressed against his chest? Or was it the way the fuzzy outline of his fingers curled around the knife meant to cut her throat? Was it the knowledge that no matter what happened, one of them was fated to die, and they both knew who it was?

He could tell Laura was rolling her eyes as she tipped her head back, resting it on his shoulder, baring her neck further. "I'm getting bored, Dale. Kill me. You know this is how it has to be."

“Is it?"

"'One of us will die," she said, "and the other will be enlightened.' Welcome to the enlightenment of Dale Vandermeer. Now, kill me."

Another version of him was on the shore, agony and confusion on his face. Fucking paradoxes. Back when that had been him—back in the first loop—he hadn't remembered her death taking this long. The being had been quick and efficient with the knife. It hadn't been this cowardly.

"I don't want to kill you." His voice didn't particularly sound like his. It had taken on that odd radio-static quality, that depthless way of speaking that the souls seemed to share. He'd picked up enough from Owl's muttering and the Paradox Room files that he knew souls were meant to be empty. There shouldn't be anything left of their old lives for them to respond to. Once a soul was thoroughly corrupted, it shouldn't be able to hesitate. Which meant Dale shouldn't have been able to hesitate. He shouldn't have even been able to notice his voice or compare it to the one on the shore. He should have been free of everything—past, present, and future thoughts—but instead, he was standing in the middle of a lake, unable to let Laura go.

Facing his corrupted soul was the final test, and of course, Dale was messing it up.

"Dale—"

"Why are you so calm about this? I'm about to slit your throat, and you can't even bother to struggle. How many times has this happened? Are you really so far gone that you can't bother to care anymore?"

"What the hell am I supposed to be doing? No matter how badly the memory extraction process messed up, we aren't human anymore. Neither is Bob or anyone else that you've met in this godforsaken place. You know I grew up here? That Harvey talks to me? I know what has to happen. What already has happened. We're a fixed point in time, Dale. I have to die so you can become the successor. So you can fix the lake. There are no other options. Not anymore."

"I could give you the knife." Her body tensed against his. "I could attack that version of me on the shore. I could change everything."

"You could. But this place is a part of you; you realize that, right? There's nothing left for you in the real world."

He thought of his office, coffee staining practically every surface, the TV humming quietly. Broken glass covering the floor. A perfect view of the man Bob's soul killed. The bottle of whiskey he kept hidden under the sink, and Case 23's evidence pinned up anywhere it could be.

He saw his parents happily celebrating his birthday. Cake, presents, music, and decorations. Owl's letter, Harvey's postcard, Mr. Rabbit's apologies. Nine years old and his entire family shot dead in front of him. D. Eilander's delighted, taunting smile as Dale chased him through the Paradox Room.

He remembered his psychiatric file: Dale Vandermeer: born in 1930, 40 years of age, an alcoholic cliche. Suffered from depression, anxiety, unprocessed trauma, and a rather inconvenient fear of fish. The death of Laura Vanderboom caused repressed memories to resurface, which in turn caused his mental state to deteriorate. He was sent to Rusty Lake to heal and recover.

"This place has been woven so thoroughly into your life that there's no way you can destroy it without destroying yourself. They changed your memories, Dale. We are your memories. Kill me."

He wondered if it was the lake making her like this—more open, more trusting—or if she had simply given up. He had never been this human in any of the other loops. He had never cared this much.

"What happens when I do? When I am... enlightened?" He'd seen that figure in the woods. Behind his glitching form and lifeless body, beyond the Dales of other loops, his past loops, there had been a future mind. A new head where his own should have been, telling him that he'd already made his choice.

"You'll reach a higher state of consciousness. It'll be better for you, I suppose. You won't have to care anymore. In fact, you’ll likely think this is justified. You'll eventually take over control of the lake if we’re to believe Mr. Owl."

"Maybe I'll kill him. To save you."

"Oh, please, Dale. You had the chance to save me, remember? You could have taken the green vial, sacrificed yourself to the lake. Instead, you're here. It's too late for us."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think we'll see each other again?"

A sigh. "I'll miss you."

The water broke around them. Ripples reached toward everything: the cabin, the caves, the hotel, the Paradox Room, the forest. The Dale on the shore, watching them. It was time.

"I'm sorry." Laura's body went limp and sagged against him as they fell into the water, life draining from her. He wondered if they were going back to her house, back to where Dale first found her body. Back before he even knew of corrupted souls, of the Vanderbooms and Eilanders, of Rusty Lake and the damage that existed in his mind.

He heard his past self yell. That man—the man he used to be—would only find a black cube in the water, one that would lead him back to the Paradox Room, one that would send him into his own body with a cut and pounding headache. He could never make it in time to save her.

Laura Vanderboom was dead. And yet, as they returned to the lake, Dale couldn't help but smile. It was poetic, in their own tragic way: the reborn mind and an enlightened one, finding each other at last.

**Author's Note:**

> i think, despite both of them being corrupted, being in the lake during their last moments of humanity brought out the remaining humanity in them.
> 
> my tumblr: rusty-pulley-stars


End file.
